Love, Victor: Why Michael Cimo Took Gay Role Agast Indtry Advice – IndieWire

Contents:

• IS NICK ROBSON GAY? 'LOVE, SIMON' ACTOR SETS THE RERD STRAIGHT!
• 'LOVE, SIMON' ACTOR OUT AS GAY
• LOVE, SIMON: AT LAST HOLLYWOOD IS SAYG ‘I’M GAY’
• ‘LOVE, VICTOR’ STAR SAYS GAY ROLE SPARKED HOMOPHOBIA OM HIS FAY, ATH THREATS
• LOVE, SIMON IS A GROUNDBREAKG GAY MOVIE. BUT DO TODAY'S TEENS ACTUALLY NEED IT?
• WHY ‘LOVE, VICTOR’ STAR MICHAEL CIMO TOOK A GAY ROLE AGAST INDTRY ADVICE
• "LOVE, SIMON" STAR CLARK MOORE ON THE LACK OF DIVERSY WHEN COM TO GAY ROL AND GETTG TO ACT OUT HIS HIGH SCHOOL FANTASY
• ‘THERE’S NO WRONG WAY TO BE GAY’: BEHD THE SCEN OF LOVE, VICTOR
• 'LOVE, SIMON' IS A GOTDAMN LIGHTFUL ROM, AND 'S GAY AS HELL

IS NICK ROBSON GAY? 'LOVE, SIMON' ACTOR SETS THE RERD STRAIGHT!

Nick Robson stars the new movie Love, Simon about a high-school stunt’s g out journey and fans might be wonrg if the actor is gay or straight real life. Ellen asked Nick if he hated at all to play a gay character and he said that he went back and forth wh director Greg Berlanti about . "Pollari, who has played a gay character once before TV seri Amerin Crime, said he stggled wh a sense of shame before g out.

Love, Simon, out today, breaks new ground as the first mastream gay teen romance film to h theaters across the U.

I’m on a LGBT film, playg this character, there’s a gay director, everyone is so supportive. Cast & crewUser reviewsTrivia2018PG-131h 50mSimon Spier keeps a huge secret om his fay, his iends and all of his classmat: he's gay. Read allSimon Spier keeps a huge secret om his fay, his iends and all of his classmat: he's gay.

'LOVE, SIMON' ACTOR OUT AS GAY

When that secret is threatened, Simon mt face everyone and e to terms wh his Spier keeps a huge secret om his fay, his iends and all of his classmat: he's gay. The Homo Sapiens Agenda" by). Hot Sophomore Girl.

Gay Club Patron. Joshua Shomo...

LOVE, SIMON: AT LAST HOLLYWOOD IS SAYG ‘I’M GAY’

Wh the rporate clout of 20th Century Fox behd , Love, Simon is the first gay teen movie om a major stud. Tolerance has s mercial benefs; a gay film need no longer appeal exclively to small or specialised when Betiful Thg opened 1996, the UK age of nsent for gay men had only recently been lowered om 21 to 18 (still two years higher than the heterosexual one).

‘LOVE, VICTOR’ STAR SAYS GAY ROLE SPARKED HOMOPHOBIA OM HIS FAY, ATH THREATS

Lbians and gay men were banned om servg the armed forc, the sid Sectn 28 was seven years away om beg repealed while phras like “civil partnership” and “marriage equaly” were as unfaiar then as “social media” and “trigger warng” Get Real, a Brish g-out movie that followed two years after Betiful Thg, feel-good material still had to acknowledge the possibily of vlence and homophobia. Photograph: RONALD GRANTThe -stigmatisatn of homosexualy has removed om drama one of s olst standbys: the threat of ostracisatn and social . Audienc the 1960s uld well prehend the distrs of the barrister, played by Dirk Bogar, who is blackmailed over his sexualy Victim, jt as their 1980s unterparts appreciated the sndal of a married man wh a gay lover Makg Love.

The ultimate spiratn among gay teachers, however, mt be Mart Donovan the 1998 edy The Oppose of Sex. “I don’t want to be jt theoretilly gay, ” he says, sportg a rabow neckerchief and a much younger boyiend.

She wants to play footsie, he wants to watch most strikg achievement of Love, Simon is s promotn of a gay character om sassy sikick to thentic hero. In makg gayns s subject, while treatg as no big al, Love, Simon pulls off a rare njurg trick wh s hero’s sexualy. It has been a phenomenal sprg for out gay actors popular entertament, and one of the bt thgs about is how much ls remarkable that is now than would’ve been a ago.

LOVE, SIMON IS A GROUNDBREAKG GAY MOVIE. BUT DO TODAY'S TEENS ACTUALLY NEED IT?

But there’s an pable every-boy qualy to Robson that mak him the perfect poster boy for a mastream Amerin edy yet a really ill-ftg one for gay dienc. Listen to a theater’s reactn to the big Simon/Bram kiss at the end of the movie and tell me you don’t get swept up the possibili for Lonsdale to play gay romantic leads for the next two s of his reer.

There, Pollari played another gay kid, albe a really troubled one; his performance was a revelatn, and though he didn’t officially e out the prs until he ma the Love, Simon rounds this sprg, was no surprise given the emotnal telligence he’d brought to his performanc. Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why hasn’t been quiet about a lot of s them, but they have managed to lowkey create one of the most straightforwardly queer shows on TV simply by wrg a multiplicy of gay characters — wh varied personali, experienc, and loyalti, no ls — and stg several gay actors to play both gay and straight rol. Tommy Dorfman, who plays rint lerary-magaze maven Ryan Shaver on 13 Reasons, is the only out gay actor playg a gay character on the show, but the 26-year-old actor brgs plexy to a character who might have read like a one-dimensnal bch on the page.

Perhaps the most imprsive of the show’s gay st is Brandon Flynn, who plays troubled, tortured Jt Foley.

WHY ‘LOVE, VICTOR’ STAR MICHAEL CIMO TOOK A GAY ROLE AGAST INDTRY ADVICE

Still, for anyone who grew up readg about on-set satg mors for every show om Beverly Hills, 90210 to Dawson’s Creek to Roswell, feels like a breakthrough and of self to have h TV shows where we n sually gossip about gay relatnships the same way we n about straight on.

A reprentative for Mil Heizer shot down the mors of a Brandon/Mil romance last year — and now Flynn is datg Osr-wng gay person Sam Smh, so now we n all wre our own longg fanfictns every time Jt and Alex are a scene together. We sometim make the mistake of mandg perfectn gay media, and Love, Simon and 13 Reasons Why fall short of perfectn to varyg gre and for var reasons.

Michael Cimo, the straight star of Hulu’s gay-themed g-of-age seri “Love, Victor, ” says he has been attacked by some the LGBTQ muny and even some of his own fay members.

"LOVE, SIMON" STAR CLARK MOORE ON THE LACK OF DIVERSY WHEN COM TO GAY ROL AND GETTG TO ACT OUT HIS HIGH SCHOOL FANTASY

In a new terview wh Attu, Cimo — who plays the tular Victor — says: “I got some homophobic ments — I kd of expected that to happen.

”He add, “Some of them reached out, sayg, ‘You ed to be so ol; now you’re so gay. “It’s weird … [the Latx muny] is liberal when to thgs about Latos, but when to gay rights, ’s like, eh, qutn mark, ” Cimo said the terview.

”In the Attu terview, Cimo said, “There’s nothg wrong wh beg gay. ’”Cimo has said multiple terviews that he has been warned agast takg gay rol for fear of typestg. Meanwhile, the young actor has also faced fierce blowback for takg a role that an out gay actor might have played.

‘THERE’S NO WRONG WAY TO BE GAY’: BEHD THE SCEN OF LOVE, VICTOR

“But there are some straight actors who play gay characters, who are all about supportg LGBT rights while they’re promotg their project, but once they’re done, a year later, ’s kd of fotten. ”Straight actors playg gay rol has been the subject of bate for some time, often hgg on Hollywood’s history of forcg gay actors to the closet real life and offerg only limed chanc to explore the humany of gay characters on-screen.

Grant, who received an Osr nomatn for playg a gay character “Can You Ever Five Me?, ” said: “I’ve always had that ncern... The transgenr movement and the #MeToo movement means, how n you jtify heterosexual actors playg gay characters? Criss, who has famoly played queer characters cludg Andrew Cunanan “The Assassatn of Gianni Versace: Amerin Crime Story” and Hedwig “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” onstage, said he wouldn’t take gay rol anymore, bee “I want to make sure I won’t be another straight boy takg a gay man’s role.

'LOVE, SIMON' IS A GOTDAMN LIGHTFUL ROM, AND 'S GAY AS HELL

It's difficult to talk about Keiynan Lonsdale's pivotal scene Love, Simon whout spoilg the movie's most lightful surprise, but 's helpful to know that performg also changed Lonsdale's the film, Lonsdale — bt known as Wally Wt, aka Kid Flash, on CW's The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow — plays Bram, one of three possible love terts for Simon Spier (Nick Robson), a closeted gay teenager who stumbl to an anonymo onle flirtatn wh another closeted gay teen he knows only as Blue.